This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from my application entitled MICROWAVE OVEN filed with the Korean Industrial Property Office on Mar. 31, 2000 and there duly assigned Serial No. 2000/17030.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microwave oven, and more particularly, to a microwave oven which can prevent a tray from being released from an original installation position due to vibration, impact, inclination or the like in the case that the microwave oven is equipped to mobile means such as a motor vehicle, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, since a microwave oven requires utility AC power, the microwave oven has been used in a location where AC power is supplied, such as a kitchen, etc. However, as a dual-purpose microwave oven which can be driven not only by AC power but also by DC power, is recently disclosed in the art, the microwave oven can be conveniently used in an outdoor field as well as the kitchen.
Such a double-purpose microwave oven is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the microwave oven has a cabinet 1. A space inside the cabinet 1 is divided into a cooking chamber 2 in which a food is received to be cooked, and a driving chamber 3 in which a variety of electrical parts for supplying microwaves of a high frequency into the cooking chamber 2 are disposed.
As can be readily seen from FIG. 2, a tray 5 on which a food to be cooked or a vessel having accommodated therein a food to be cooked is placed, and a rotation guide 6 for rotatably 8 supporting the tray 5, are disposed in the cooking chamber 2. In the driving chamber 3, there are disposed a tray driving section 8 for transferring rotating force to the tray 5, a magnetron 9 for supplying the microwaves of a high frequency to the cooking chamber 2, a waveguide 10 for guiding the microwaves of a high frequency, which are generated by the magnetron 9, into the cooking chamber 2, and so forth.
The tray 5 is coupled with a driving shaft 8a of the tray driving section 8. The rotation guide 6 has an inserting portion which is defined with an inserting hole and branched portions which are branched from the inserting portion in a radial direction. The inserting hole has an inner diameter which is substantially the same as an outer diameter of the driving shaft 8a. The driving shaft 8a is inserted through the inserting hole of the inserting portion of the rotation guide 6. A plurality of rollers 7 are provided to free ends of the branched portions, respectively. The plurality of rollers 7 are simultaneously brought into contact with a bottom surface of the cooking chamber 2 and a lower surface of the tray 5.
As a consequence, the microwaves of a high frequency which are generated by the magnetron 9 which is disposed in the driving chamber 3, are supplied into the cooking chamber 2 through the waveguide 10, whereby the food placed on the tray 5 is cooked. At this time, the tray 5 is rotated by the tray driving section 8 in a manner such that the microwaves of a high frequency can be uniformly radiated to portions of the food to be cooked.
However, the conventional microwave oven suffers from defects in that, since the tray 5 is simply seatedly coupled to the driving shaft 8a of the tray driving section 8 by self weight, in the case that external force which exceeds the self weight, is applied to the tray 5, the likelihood of the tray 5 to be released from its original installation position, that is, the driving shaft 8a of the tray driving section 8, is increased. This problem is worsened in the case that a motor vehicle runs in a state wherein the microwave oven is equipped thereto or the microwave oven is transported from place to place, to cause the microwave oven to experience vibration, impact, inclination or the like. As the tray 5 is released from the original installation position to be collided with a wall defining the cooking chamber 2, a possibility of the cooking chamber 2 or the tray 5 itself to be damaged is increased.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the problems occurring in the related art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a microwave oven which prevents a tray from being released from an original installation position due to vibration, impact, inclination or the like, thereby protecting a cooking chamber and the tray itself from being damaged.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a microwave oven having a tray which is arranged in a cooking chamber and on which a food to be cooked or a vessel having accommodated therein a food to be cooked is placed and a tray driving section which is disposed in a driving chamber for transferring rotating force to the tray, the microwave oven comprising: tray supporting means for preventing the tray from being released from an original installation position, the tray supporting means including a first coupling portion which is formed on a driving shaft of the tray driving section, a second coupling portion which is press-fitted around the first coupling portion and supporting arm portions which extend from the second coupling portion in a radial direction so as to be respectively engaged with an edge of the tray.